The Great Wander of 2026 - Day 5

The Great Wander of 2026

Day 5: May 28th, 2026

States Hiked: New York, Vermont (8 total so far)

Trails Hiked: Capital Area Regional Welcome Center, Crown Point Trail

Distance Hiked: 1.0 miles, 4.6 miles

Elevation Gain: 227 ft

Cumulative Wander: 31.7 miles

Duration: 20m, 1h 33m

I really, really didn't want to get out of the car for a while. 

The skies looked ominous, I wasn't eager to go out in Pennsylvania again with my return imminent, and memories of the last time I headed northeast in the state didn't exactly endear me to traveling there. Former friends who turned out to be liars at the most critical of times, an unfortunate incident at an Arby's, and a lack of any affinity for that show that took place in Scranton, my energy was lacking after sitting through an entire live wrestling show for the first time in a solid 10 years. 

Also the skies grew even more ominous as my trip approached New York. What kind of fraud was I to at least get some steps in at a freaking rest stop with an Adventure Lab? One who sat in traffic near Schenectady and thought, as the opening of Tin Cup would so eloquently remind us, "a little bit is better than nada." And, perhaps, a great philosopher would also proclaim, "sometimes you want the whole enchilada." 

My travels continued into the Adirondacks, and I'm pretty sure I missed the appropriate turn-off to head into Vermont, but the wonderful thing about a wander is that there are no accidental turns when there is no destination. That is precisely what led to my choice of hiking location, albeit on the second attempt. 

The first was a wander up near Ticonderoga, depressing as that area was to drive through unfortunately. The idea of adding a mountain to the wander statistics list was indeed endearing, but the mountain apparently closed at 4:30, as mountains are wont to do. The rocks are always changing, and sometimes a jiggy jaggy hilly boi needs a nappy around the same time as the rowdy folx start storming the Golden Corral for the early bird special. Tale as old as time, song as old as the whole enchilada. 

If there's one thing that can get me to turn around on a dime and go back because I need to go climb it, it is a majestic bridge I've never seen before.

Okay, it's not the one thing. See also: lighthouse, a loon calling, a goth in fishnet, Timeless Toni Storm. 

The sun was near set, a lighthouse was off to the right (so it was a two-fer), and I didn't see a single other person on the bridge or the lovely rustic journey along the ancient fort to the side. Plus, for the second time on this trip, I knocked another state off the list by crossing a bridge and raising the technicality flag for such joyous exploitation of colonial lines and their arbitrary tendencies to accumulate on lists such as this one. 

There were geocaches, there were giant stones that men decorated the hills with, and there was a trail that descended into buggy madness. Not all wandering hikes are glorious, sometimes they're just vague specificities to fit a certain absurd need.